MANILA - Property seekers looked mostly in Quezon City or Cebu for properties to rent and buy last year, making the cities the property hotspots in 2020, data from property finder Lamudi showed.

In its report "Hotspots Unwrapped: 2020's Most Popular Locations", Lamudi said Quezon City remains the most in-demand location in Metro Manila for property seekers, taking 12.76 percent of overall pageviews in 2020.

It was followed by Makati with 7.16 percent; Pasig, 4.56 percent; Taguig, 4.4 percent; and Manila, 4.02 percent.

Lamudi said these cities hosting central business districts attract a lot of renters near their workplaces.

The same trend was also seen in provinces, with Cebu City hogging most of the interest with 26.56 percent, mostly renters.

This is a big difference from the next hotspot Davao, which only had 8.29 percent of overall page views for provincial cities.

"The popularity of [Cebu as a] location may be credited to the fact that it’s among the top choices of businesses setting up shop in provinces. For this reason, properties become more attractive to different kinds of homebuyers," Lamudi said.

Compared to Cebu and Davao in Visayas and Mindanao, other top provincial hotspots are near the National Capital Region and attracted more buyers of permanent residences than renters.

These include Bacoor, Cavite with 6.71 percent, Antipolo, Rizal with 6.66 percent, and Angeles, Pampanga with 6.19 percent.

"There has been a gradual movement of going outside Metro Manila. Property prices are relatively more affordable and there is more land yet to be developed...people look for residences in less densely populated locations...accommodating physical distancing requirements," Lamudi said.

"Half of the top provincial cities outside the urban centers are tourist hotspots: Antipolo, Angeles, Baguio, and Imus. This may suggest that the market is on the lookout for residential locations that not only accommodate new normal living but also enable leisure amid a crisis," it added.

For overseas demand, most hunters of local properties come from Singapore, followed by Dubai, London, Sydney, and Doha.

"...Locations with a high concentration of Filipino workers show strong interest in Philippine real estate. These are cities in Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and the region of the Middle East," Lamudi said.

To cap the list, property seekers also came from Los Angeles, Melbourne, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Toronto.

Lamudi noted the most active seekers from the overseas markets are the millennials aged 25 to 34, yet the "most motivated" are the 45 to 54-year-olds looking for local properties for retirement.

• Real estate investments to explore in 2021
• Slow rentals to further drag PH lease rates by 2021: Colliers

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv